Πέμπτη, 1 Μαρτίου 2018

Orthodox Christian Clergy Against Racism

The
Holy Apostle Paul, in his speech on the Areopagus in Athens (icon),
unequivocally asserted that God “hath made of one blood all nations of
men for to dwell on the face of the earth” (Acts 17:26). That “all
nations of men” are “of one blood” clearly indicates that any biological
differences between so-called “races” are superficial at best. “Race,”
when used as a classification based on external characteristics (such as
skin color, facial features, and differences in eye and hair color), is
a largely artificial construct that has never been used as a legitimate
ethical or theological category within the Church. When we speak of
race within the Church, we speak of the fallen “race of Adam,” and the
“Christian race.” There are no races, in the sense of there being an
objectively definable category of "race" as we commonly use the
term—only humans with any number of different phenotypical descriptors.
Most emphatically there is not a “Caucasian race” or a “Negro race” or
an “Asiatic race.” There are nationalities, linguistic groups, cultural
associations, and so forth, but these have only an accidental
relationship to phenotype.
Thus, all human beings, no matter their nationality, being of “one
blood” (i.e. one nature), are all sons of Adam and daughters of Eve, and
thus children of God. This unity of the human race is only deepened by
the oneness that we as Orthodox Christians receive in Christ, a oneness
that in our Lord’s words in His high priestly prayer becomes like that
of the Persons of the Holy Trinity itself (John 17:21-23). This oneness
is the highest possible realization of our Lord’s commandment to love
our neighbor as our self (Matthew 22:39), a love which, according to the
Sermon on the Mount, means that we must love even our enemies (Matthew
5:44).

All of this obviously precludes any personal hatred, prejudice, or
resentment of others on account of their “race” or nationality, and it
must also lead Orthodox Christians to reject and oppose systemic or
institutional injustice against racial or national minorities.
Furthermore, it means that we must be wary of smuggling racism into the
Orthodox Church under other guises.
For example, the Orthodox Church does not regard marriage and subsequent
procreation between races or nationalities as either sinful or
undesirable for any theological or ethical reasons whatsoever. The
decision regarding whom Orthodox Christians should marry is a personal
one only constrained by the Biblical injunction that one should,
ideally, marry within the faith. Indeed, in one of his homilies on I
Corinthians 13 (Homily XXXIV),
St. John Chrysostom teaches that marriage between different families,
nations, and races unites the human race in love just as does our
descent from a common forefather:

Additionally, love of or pride in one's heritage or culture may not be
used to justify, in the name of "racial purity" any kind of separation
along presumed racial lines in general, much less antagonism towards
another race as such. Since we are all of “one blood” as St. Paul says,
there is not and cannot be any “racial purity.” While a healthy
appreciation of one’s country, ethnic heritage, language, culture, and
family are to be encouraged, and when these are threatened by violence
and oppression their defense may be warranted (see for instance, the
Russian Orthodox Church’s statement, “The Basis of the Social Concept”),
this love must never be allowed to foster division or resentment. As
the Russian Church’s statement warns: “national sentiments can cause
such sinful phenomena as aggressive nationalism, xenophobia, national
exclusiveness and inter-ethnic enmity. At their extremes, these
phenomena often lead to the restriction of the rights of individuals and
nations, wars and other manifestations of violence.” The adoption of
fascistic imagery, rhetoric, and tactics by groups that claim to
represent “white nationalism” in the United States is a case in point,
and constitutes a clear step in the direction of the extremes of which
the Russian Church warns us.

We, as clergy of the Orthodox Church, affirm that racism, antisemitism,
and xenophobia are sins. Anyone within the Orthodox Church who promotes
or is sympathetic to any of these must therefore repent before God for
the sake of his or her own soul, and for the good of the Church.

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